Most criminals rob banks, steal cars, or maybe just take your wallet. But some crooks have gone for less conventional targets over the years. Like Kurt Cobain’s ashes, or 6,000 cheesecakes.
1. Bridge Today, Gone Tomorrow
If someone offered to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, you’d know it was a scam. But if someone in Khabarovsk, Russia, were to offer you a 200-ton steel bridge, they might actually deliver. In January 2008, employees on their way to a remote heating plant were forced to find an alternate route after the 38-foot steel bridge they crossed the day before had vanished. While the workers slept, scrap metal thieves dismantled the span and supports and loaded it all onto trucks for a quick getaway. The plant’s owners estimated it would cost around $40,000 to build a new bridge. This time, though, they were going to use concrete.
2. Lifting Lingerie
During the 1992 L.A. riots, while some looters were busy stealing TVs and VCRs, others broke into Frederick’s of Hollywood and made off with around $200,000 in women’s undergarments. The company also suffered the loss of a few one-of-a-kind items from the store’s lingerie museum—a bustier with gold tassels that Madonna wore in the music video for “Open Your Heart,” a pair of Ava Gardner’s bloomers, and a push-up bra worn by Katey Sagal as Married…With Children‘s Peg Bundy. A few days later, a man known only as Jim B. came forward to return Peg’s push-up and Ava’s undies. Sadly, Madonna’s bustier was never recovered, despite a $1,000 reward from the company. But she agreed to give Frederick’s a replacement in exchange for a $10,000 donation to an organization that supplied free mammograms to the poor.
3. Somebody Call for a Bambulance?
Escaped psychiatric patient Leon Hollimon stole an ambulance in Lexington, North Carolina, and led police on a cat-and-mouse chase for hours, traveling through four different counties in two states. One of the cops likened the chase to an episode of Dukes of Hazzard. Eventually, the culprit ran off the road and was apprehended wearing a stethoscope, carrying latex gloves, and sporting a mohawk. It was an odd enough crime, but it got really weird when authorities found, splayed in the back, a dead deer with an IV stuck into its body. There was also evidence that Hollimon had tried using a defibrillator on the animal. Hollimon was taken to a nearby mental health facility for evaluation.
4. Kurt Cobain, Meet Cheech and Chong
After Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, most of his ashes were spread over a Buddhist temple in New York and in the Wishkash River in Washington state. His wife, Courtney Love, kept what was left inside a pink, bear-shaped handbag, hidden in a closet at her Hollywood home. In June 2008, Love said that a former friend broke in and stole the bag. The ashes’ whereabouts were unknown until a few months later, when German performance artist Natascha Stellmach claimed she acquired them, mixed them with marijuana, and planned to smoke the whole thing as part of an art installation entitled “Set Me Free.” She said the act was symbolic and was going to release Cobain’s spirit “into the ether from the media circus.” Of course, no one is able to substantiate if Cobain’s remains were in the joint or if it was just a publicity stunt. Either way, the ashes were never recovered.
5. Hulk Wrestles Ex-Wife for Toilet Seat
Shortly after their divorce, Hulk Hogan (AKA Terry Bollea) sued his ex-wife, Linda, for stripping their Florida home of chandeliers, a tanning bed, bathtubs, fixtures, and many other items Hogan said were necessary for the house to sell. One of those much-needed items specifically mentioned in the suit was a “wooden antique toilet seat from the guest house.” In response to Hulk’s accusations, Linda said, “He knows I’m using the wooden toilet seat as a frame for his picture ever since I found out he is a serial cheater and a liar. Once he comes clean and starts to be honest, he can have it back.” Obviously this is one Hollywood relationship that really went down the crapper.
6. Head Deadhead’s Head Missing
The Hulkster isn’t the only one with missing toilet woes. After Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia died, Henry Kolty bought the rock star’s home and auctioned off items from the house to raise money for charity. In March 2006, Kolty sold Garcia’s toilet for $2,550 to casino Goldenpalace.com. But before it could be delivered, the throne was stolen from Kolty’s driveway. The casino offered $250 for the return of the commode, but it was never found.
7. Now I Just Need a Few Tons of Strawberries…
On December 26, 2009, truck driver Gary LaSalle left his big rig and refrigerated trailer parked near Orlando International Airport with a group of similar delivery trucks. He took the keys with him, but left the cooling unit running on the trailer to protect his valuable cargo, which he would be delivering to North Carolina in the morning. When he returned the next day, his $50,000 truck, the $120,000 trailer and its contents—6,000 cheesecakes, valued at $40,000—were gone. The police investigation is ongoing, but its doubtful the cheesecakes will ever be found.
8. Pilfered Pumps and Heisted Heels
While it’s a known fact that women love shoes, apparently so did Chuck Jones, the former publicist of Marla Maples, the former wife of Donald Trump. In July 1992, Maples noticed that some of her things were missing. So she and Donald set up a hidden camera in her apartment and caught Jones in her apartment without permission. When police raided his home, they found some of Maples’ underwear and 40 pairs of her shoes, including high heels, black Converse high-tops, bedroom slippers, and cowboy boots made of alligator skin. He was initially convicted in 1994, but that was overturned in 1996 due to a technicality. During his retrial in 1999, he represented himself and, during his testimony, admitted to having a shoe fetish. He went so far to say he’d had a sexual relationship with Maples’ footwear. After a media circus trial, Jones was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to 1 to 4 years in prison. He was released in 2001 and tried unsuccessfully to sue Maples for various reasons until 2002, when the courts told him to stop.
Ever heard of a crime and asked yourself, “Why would you steal that?” Ever had anything peculiar stolen from your own house? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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I use to leave my car unlocked in the driveway for a full year nothing went missing. One day I left my gym bag on the back seat with my stinky gym clothes and it was stolen, there were no shoes or anything valuable in the bag. Nothing else in the car was touched including my cell phone.
posted by FrankieA on 1-11-2010 at 12:01 pm
reCaptcha: team amnesia
posted by a_w on 1-11-2010 at 12:07 pm
A guy I worked with had his car broken into on his lunch break at a local restaurant one day. He didn’t have any gadgets like a GPS in there, so the theif stole the box of jerseys for the kids’ baseball team he coaches. Sad day.
About 2 weeks later, an identical story hit the nightly news – I’m guessing it was the same people. Is there some sort of black market for that?
posted by catherine ann on 1-11-2010 at 12:56 pm
$40K to replace a bridge? Can we get them to bid on some jobs here?
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 1-11-2010 at 1:11 pm
When I was a kid my parent’s house was buglurized while we were on vacation. We came home early and began figuring out what was missing for the police report. My brother, who was probably around 8, found is faux aligator skinned wallet was missing. He was extrememly upset about the wallet being gone, not the money that he had inside of it.
posted by Mavis on 1-11-2010 at 1:16 pm
Somebody broke into my car and stole a box of tampons… They didn’t touch my CD’s, didn’t take the change in the console, didn’t take my speakers… Nope, just my tampons.
Hey, I hope it helped someone in need I guess. :-)
posted by Ophelia on 1-11-2010 at 1:21 pm
The Oddest theft I’ve ever had was when someone broke into my house and took all of the rings in the house. Nothing else. The TV, both computers, and all other jewelry were still there.
The Set of a Diamond Crucifix, brooch and ring were all together in the same drawer and they took the ring, but left the other two items. They even took the Mood ring that was sitting on the computer keyboard as a reminder of a joke from a friend (worth what? $3?)
posted by Stormy on 1-11-2010 at 2:02 pm
my old roommate had his car broken into, nothing was stolen but the culprit left a hoodie in the car. Apparently he was trying to steal the stereo, but couldn’t manage to get it out, must of gotten hot in the process.
posted by hockey zombie on 1-11-2010 at 2:04 pm
I guess back in the day, before DVD’s and digital media, video tapes (for VCR’s) must have been a hot commodity. My parents’ house was robbed and they stole our clearly labelled cassettes of “Haunted Honeymoon” “Beetlejuice” and “Top Gun”, among other timeless classics… None of the antiques in the house though because my parents still have those and keep reminding me how valuable they are…
posted by ab on 1-11-2010 at 2:16 pm
I had my car broken into a few years ago and they stole a pack of cigarettes and a hat like people wore in rice patties in Asia (it was used in a mortal kombat costume from a pirate/ninja party). Needless to say that was weird to explain to the police.
posted by Alex on 1-11-2010 at 2:22 pm
My mother had the ugliest pair of bowling shoes I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean absolutely hideous! She kept them for decades after she’d stopped wearing them to bowl regularly (they were from the early seventies) mostly because we all got such a laugh out of them. Then in the late nineties, a house we were no longer living in but were still using to store some stuff in was broken into. Most of what the thieves stole made sense, pawnable stuff like a gun safe and tools, but oddly enough they stole the bowling shoes. They left the rest of the stuff in the cabinet where the shoes were, contents of the bowling bag, and all the other sporting equipment, but took those horrible shoes. Oddly, it really made the whole situation a lot better for us. While we were upset about the robbery, the shoe part gave us a big laugh to take the edge off of it.
posted by Melissa on 1-11-2010 at 2:41 pm
I was maybe 2 or 3 when it happened, but someone broke in to our home and in addition to the usual stuff like their TV and jewelery, they also stole my parnents’ high school yearbooks- all of them.
posted by Jamie M. on 1-11-2010 at 2:56 pm
My family and I went to Memphis, TN for a swim meet when I was about 12. Someone broke into my mom’s van to only steal the Old Navy clothing. The bag phone (it was new…then,) the cash in the glove compartment, and everything else was left.
My friend at school recently had her car broken into. What was stolen? A bag of chips. Not even a regular size bag. This was a vending machine size bag.
posted by Kelsey on 1-11-2010 at 3:21 pm
My husband’s godfather’s car was broken into on Christmas Eve and, aside from the spare change, the only other thing missing were his $2 sunglasses. Yes, $2. He buys them at the dollar store, and he was very upset that they were stolen. The thief, however, let him keep the plastic Mary statue stuck to his dashboard.
posted by Beth on 1-11-2010 at 3:44 pm
lol. I haven’t had anything stolen out of my car, but the person i bought it from said that someone in the high school parking lot stole his air freshener. I thought that was the weirdest thing, since the car has a new kenwood stereo system, and he had his zune in the car at the time. People are strange…
posted by tess on 1-11-2010 at 3:56 pm
When I was in college, my car was parked at a friends house in the country and while we were inside, My car was broken into. This was during finals and they took all of my school books I had planned on selling back for Christmas money, two semesters worth of notes, half a bottle of perfume, a vacuum cleaner from the trunk, AND all my cd’s (hope the thugs like Neko Case and Jenny Lewis mix cds) BUT they left cash in the glove box and my debit card in the console.
They even stole my cup of pennies….
posted by Amy on 1-11-2010 at 4:00 pm
My purple 1995 Grand Am was stolen from an apartment complex while I was attending San Jose State…but the thieves were nice enough to leave the contents of the car (textbooks, clothes, shoes, change and a brand new microwave) in the parking spot. I was actually happy that the car had been stolen, it was an embarrassment to my punk rock style lol.
posted by Corinne on 1-11-2010 at 4:23 pm
We once had thieves break into our house while we were on vacation, and they Frank and left the empty bottle of 151 overproof rum.
Unfortunately the alcohol had an impact on the other items they took- an empty camera case, all the dentist treat rings in my sister’s jewelry box leaving the actually valuable rings, things like that.
They were caught trying to offload the nigerian money they’d stolen from our neighbors.
posted by Bucephalus on 1-11-2010 at 4:31 pm
I stole a ‘Warning: Wet Floor’ sign from my high school six years ago, along with an office chair. We would also break into the coke machine in the teachers’ lounge and steal sodas, because it was the only machine in the school that still dispensed those old glass bottles.
Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest.
posted by Melanie on 1-11-2010 at 5:06 pm
When i was younger, my parents would leave their cars unlocked at night. One day we discovered that someone had gotten into the cars in the middle of the night. They unplugged both of the car phones, but left them otherwise untouched. They stole 1 pair of work gloves from my dad’s truck and my mom’s camera from her car. We found the camera later that day a few houses down in the yard. It was covered in dents like whoever took it was trying to break it apart.
posted by Mr. Bond on 1-11-2010 at 5:10 pm
I’ve never stolen anything ever,due to an overly-guilty conscience and an insane fear of the embarassment of getting caught.Having said that,I like to think that if I did ever steal anything,I’d amass (sp?Why does that look weird?) the biggest collection of random,worthless things ever.
posted by Nikky on 1-11-2010 at 6:07 pm
This summer, some knuckleheads broke into my car and stole a portable hard drive I had in the front seat under a bag, my sunglasses, and my mints. Luckily they didn’t pop the trunk and take $2,000 in golf equipment
posted by Dave on 1-11-2010 at 6:31 pm
My coworker recently had her sandwich stolen out of our break room fridge!!!
posted by Mrs. G on 1-11-2010 at 6:51 pm
When my little sister was in high school and I was in college, we stole a big mirrored disco ball from the high school’s backstage. My sister got left out of the program for the school musical, and was bitter about it, so she decided she wanted the neglected disco ball as compensation. We walked in after school, and I zipped up my coat over it and pretended to be pregnant. And that, my friends, is a bonding experience.
posted by Emily on 1-11-2010 at 8:50 pm
A friend of mine sadly had her car broken into. Of all the things the thief took, one of them was A BIBLE! A Bible!
posted by Elise Rivera on 1-11-2010 at 9:04 pm
When I was a young girl a boy down the street from us starting stealing our bras and underwear off the clothes line where they were drying. He was eventually caught and punished for his crime…
posted by Theresa on 1-11-2010 at 9:55 pm
Once, my mom left her car unlocked. Some theives proceeded to steal the CDs sitting on the passenger seat. Sounds normal, but there’s one strange thing — the CDs had been individually removed from the CD case. Why they didn’t just take the case is something I still wonder about.
posted by Mollie on 1-11-2010 at 10:01 pm
When my then fiance and i lived in another community while i was attending college someone stole the valve stem covers from our truck tires. we moved 3 times in the next year and had 4 sets of valve stem covers and 2 sets of those little mirrors you stick to your side mirrors stolen. HELLO!!! VALVE STEM COVERS!!! Come on, how about the mudflaps or the license plate frame thingy!!?!?
posted by Tonya on 1-11-2010 at 10:51 pm
I stole an industrial welcome mat that was in front of my science building in college. It was real late, started snowing and I figured my house needed a good mat, still have it to this day!
posted by ap on 1-11-2010 at 10:52 pm
A workplace thief stole the ham out of somebody’s lunch box here in the office fridge. Nothing else. Just the ham.
Somebody else I know kept having their Coke stolen from the office fridge. Until one day they drank part and replaced the rest with, ahem, urine. The thief never returned.
posted by Luke on 1-11-2010 at 10:59 pm
I used to have to park in a dark dingy carpark for work, and had my car broken into twice while there. The first time they actually took nothing at all (there was nothing in the car to take) but ruined the locks, the second time they took all of the contents – half a tin of breath mints and an empty can of deoderant. And ruined the locks.
posted by Tim on 1-11-2010 at 11:43 pm
When I was in 6th grade someone broke into my locker and stole my school ID badge.
In 8th grade my school got new score boards, and they left the old ones next to the door that we walk out side for break through. My friends stole a vast amount of light bulbs, and a bunch of the plastic things that go over the light bulbs. I still have some of the light bulbs.
posted by Anne on 1-12-2010 at 12:05 am
Back in the mid-1960′s the Sinclair Dinos were stolen from the New York World’s Fair. These were huge realistic dinosaur statues that had been floated down the Hudson on barges to get to the fair. A few years later, someone stole the facade of the Bogardus building, which was a substantial and notable Manhattan landmark.
posted by Lucas Membrane on 1-12-2010 at 1:09 am
Christmas Eve a few years back my family left for dinner and came back to find the back door open and all the wrapped gifts under the tree gone. There are two funny parts about this. First the cheap stuff was wrapped and under the tree, the good stuff was un wrapped and under a blanket on the friggin couch not 2 feet from the tree. They did not even bother checking the couch. The second funny part came a few years later we read in the paper that the guys that robbed us also robbed someone else…. a gun owner! These guys surprised him and they were both shot and killed. That was the event that cemented my belief in Karma, and changed the way I live my life.
posted by Jon on 1-12-2010 at 1:40 am
While I was at the beach last summer I left my watch, towel, radio, and my beat up pair of flip-flops on the sand while I took a swim. When I returned, a thief had stolen one of my sandles… Only one of them, and had left the rest of my things.
posted by Danielle on 1-12-2010 at 1:53 am
I had my Canon Rebel Camera stolen from work. (a totally sweet gift from my husband, sigh) They went into my backpack stole the camera and left my wallet with all my money still in it. I think it was an inside job. My supervisor was so nonchalant, like who cares if someone got back in the employee area. She asked how much it costs. WTF? The crazy thing is that I tried to find the same model at a pawn shop, pawn shops won’t take them because it’s not a digital camera.
posted by Jessica on 1-12-2010 at 1:53 am
I have had all kinds of stuff taken from my cars over the years but the strangest thing to happen was one day I found someone sleeping in my van! He was homeless and said he was sorry, I felt bad for him I gave him $50 and bought him lunch. Then I dropped him off all the way across town as far from my house as i could. Good deed done. I havent seen him sense that day.
posted by Jon on 1-12-2010 at 1:56 am
When I was a freshman in high school my mom’s stereo from her mini van was stolen along with my entire collection of c.d.s that were on the floor. I really hope the hooligans who broke into my mom’s van like The Swan Princess Soundtrack, The Best of the Muppets, and Nelly Furtado among others.
posted by Anna on 1-12-2010 at 2:21 am
I once had someone steal from my baggage between my baggage drop-off and reclaim during a flight. I had fun explaining that one to the airline company… When I opened it I could see everything had been disturbed, all my folded clothes were rumpled, things on the bottom were on the top… and all my socks were gone. They left everything else of value… (well, actually everything else cost substantially more than my socks)
posted by Cindy on 1-12-2010 at 5:30 am
The stolen cheesecakes remind me of King Missile’s song “Cheesecake Truck.”
posted by Allisa on 1-12-2010 at 9:53 am
Back in my younger days I worked for a fast food place on Panama City Beach. Every year the spring breakers would steal something from the restaurant. One year it was the entire drive-thru menu board. Next year?.. the pay phone outside the building.
Nice
posted by Rissa on 1-12-2010 at 10:04 am
As a teen a friend and I drove around and stole the American Flags that the communitys put out in front of all the houses. I would drive and my friend would hang out the passenger door and grab at them while we were still moving. She almost fell out of the car several times. I’m surprised we weren’t killed or arrested.
A few weeks later my dad had some questions for me when he found 30+ flags in my trunk.
posted by Me on 1-12-2010 at 10:13 am
I had the faceplate to my car stereo stolen along with all my burned mix cds. Not the actual stereo, just the faceplate. Thus, making the stereo useless to both me and the, I’m assuming, 12 year old punk.
posted by BioloBri on 1-12-2010 at 1:22 pm
At my first college in Philly my friends and I stole all the typical things. Street signs, wet floor signs, and a giant holagraphic Nintendo advertisement. I still have it. :)
posted by Krystle on 1-12-2010 at 1:23 pm
When I as in high school I stole a stop sign, wrapped it up complete with a tiny bow and gave it to as a Christmas gift.
posted by Diane on 1-12-2010 at 2:19 pm
On our anniversary, I usually take something from the restaurant as a momento. I have 5 saki bottles and 10 little cups, 3 speciality drink glasses, and 1 menu. Its become a game to see what I will take each year.
And it is not only anniversary dinners, its whenever an item strikes me as interesting or something that can be used at home.
recaptcha: for rarer
posted by DB on 1-12-2010 at 4:22 pm
After a car break-in a few years ago, I found all my CDs thrown on the front seat, but none were missing. I guess the thief didn’t like my taste in music. I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or offended!
Another time, I called the police after all my car windows were smashed. I couldn’t immediately determine if anything was missing, so they asked me to call back if I noticed anything. On the way home I realized what had been stolen — my radar detector. The cops weren’t exactly sorry for my loss.
posted by Karen In Japan on 1-13-2010 at 1:23 am
In my high school art class, I made a giant paper mache (sp?) Rhino. It was probably 3 feet tall and 4 feet long or so. I had a friend help me load it into the back seat of my 2 door cavalier. It wasn’t easy.
I went to soccer practice and came back to find my rhino had been stolen. Who breaks into a car to steal a rhino that took me 3 months to make? How did they manage to get it out of my car without anyone noticing? It had to have taken them some time.
posted by Kelsey on 1-13-2010 at 10:43 am
My grandma once showed me the scrapbook she made from her honeymoon. In it, was a fork from a restaurant, a bunch of sugar packets, and a menu with the words “Do not take. Front Desk Menu. Do not take.” written all over it.
posted by Lindi on 1-13-2010 at 4:10 pm
In college we had a key chain that we passed around to who ever had the crapiest car. It said “Go ahead steal my car fool!” You could leave the keys in the car with the car running and no one would take the car. Weird
We have various street and construction signs in the garage. My husband wants and I69 sign…
posted by beth on 1-13-2010 at 5:00 pm
I had my crappy college car \broken into\ on my college campus. Only the rear passenger door opened and the locks didn’t work. Someone took my Scrabble game off the back seat.
My lunch has been stolen and eaten at work three or four times. One day, my lunch and my coworker’s lunch were both stolen. Whoever took them was quite hungry.
posted by Rachel on 1-16-2010 at 5:11 am
steal what you want,but,don’t steal my Frankie!!!!!!
posted by ferrell on 1-16-2010 at 7:10 pm
Was in a laundramat once and someone came in and (apparently being very limber) stole the change out of the machine. He had to wind his arm through the slot and up and over the change box and pull the coins out with his fingertips. Our clothes were in the wash, and we weren’t quite sure what to do, not wanted to lose all our clothing and this being before cell phones. It took him forever to steal it all. On the way out, he offered some to us. No thanks.
On a downer, kids in Florida (or somewhere) got jail time for stealing a stop sign and then a family crashed and died. So beware of the signs you steal!
posted by Christa on 1-17-2010 at 7:14 pm
Someone broke into my car and stole my bible along with other stuff. Who steals a bible???
posted by Elizabeth on 1-19-2010 at 12:55 pm
One day on my lunch break, my boyfriend and I met up to have lunch at McDonalds together. We ate inside and then he dropped me back off at work. After getting back to my desk, I realize that I had left my purse on the back of the chair. So, I call the restaurant and have them look for it. They call me back to come and get it, because they found it in the bathroom. Turns out that they only wanted my stamps! I was worried because I had my check card, SS card, $50 cash, and my iPod in there. But they went past all that to steal my stamps! And you had to dig in my wallet for these stamps too, they weren’t out in the open at all. I guess I got lucky!
posted by Tricia on 1-19-2010 at 3:07 pm
after steppin in sum doo doo on the way home from high school, i left my very nice, very shiny boots on my porch. came out the next day and my laces were gone…just the laces…
posted by Fate on 1-26-2010 at 3:12 am
When my house was broken into a year ago (on the day after Christmas, natch), the thieves took the usual sorts of things, like electronics, jewelry, and liquor, but they also took quite a few pairs of socks, all of my makeup, and every roll of toilet paper in the house.
posted by Jane Eyre on 2-1-2010 at 1:55 pm
I heard from my boss that one of our co-workers brought a lunchbox into work and when she went to go open it at lunchtime, she discovered that her lunch was missing. In its place the thief had left a giant tub of margarine to make her think her lunch was still inside.. what the…
posted by Laura on 3-24-2010 at 1:34 pm
I went to the beach with my boyfriend one evening and took my shoes and socks off leaving them by some rocks while we walked along the waters edge. Coming back to pick up my shoes someone had stolen my socks, not the 150 dollar pair of doc martens my 99 cent white socks
posted by brandi on 6-10-2010 at 1:53 am